this country deeply. >> i want to thank paul ryan for all he's done for our campaign. >> i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties. >> assuming i win, one of the benefits to be able to get -- >> we are not as divided as our politics suggest. >> at a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing. >> we need to stand up and stop him from fundamentally changing the united states. >> we got to be careful about calling things when we have, like, 991 votes separating the two candidates. >> well, i'm disappointed. >> we're the shallowest country in the history of man. >> we know in our hearts that for the united states of america, the best is yet to come. ♪

the best is yet to come. these are the words of the 44th president of the united states, following his imemphatic victory last night. the family is departing from chicago on air force one, bound for the white house, a place they'll call home for another four years. the president put together the most diverse coalition in history, winning a sweep of battleground states to consign mitt romney to overwhelming defeat. but in his careful and considered speech last night, the president was generous to his opponent and called for the same unity that propelled him to an historic victory just four years ago. >> i believe we can seize this future together. because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions. and we remain more than a

collection of red states and blue states. we are and forever will be the united states of america. >> that we are greater than our individual ambitions was perhaps the most resounding message of this election. with a man who staked everything on the entrepreneurial spirit, finding to his complete mortification, constructed out of papier-mache, the cayman bank statements and positions past, it's only fair to say, yes, mr. romney, you did build that. >> like so many of you, paul and i have left everything on the field. we have given our all to this campaign. >> i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose

another leader, and so ann and i join with you to earnestly pray for him. >> he left everything on the field. except coherent policy positions, records of his personal finances, details of his tax plan and any kind of genuine vision for this great, great nation. let's get right to our panel. here in new york is msnbc contributor ari, also correspondent for "the nation," in chicago political analyst jonathan coulter, and in pennsylvania, lehigh university professor james peterson. ari your piece in "the nation" today calls the president's win a decisive victory for liberal government. what do you mean? >> i mean that when president obama took office, we had just experienced, if we can think back on it, a profound failure of both government and elite institutions from iraq, foreign policy to finances to the response to hurricane katrina.

what president obama did when he came into office was strongly and unapologetically assert the government's role in dealing with our problems. in a wide array of markets. the insurance market, the car market, small businesses, tax reform. he did that at great personal, political risk. and what he got back in return was, a very strong attack on the notion that we're in this together and that government has a role to play. first in the grass roots of the tea party on the ground and then in the air in what you documented, martin, and what the audience knows, one of the most well-funded attacks in the history of american politics. what i think happened last night is more than just a re-election of barack obama as a man that people trust to lead our country, which is, i think, good. i think something deeper happened. i think there was an endorsement of the notion, liberal notion, that government has a role to play here and can help everyone and even the playing field. i think we're in an historic

period today. >> people said yes. dr. peterson, wasn't there also a victory for the president, yes, as ari said, but also a defeat for hate? the defeat of those who maintained a barely concealed contempt for the president, women, minority, the poor? i've even read today, ted nugent, a columnist for "the washington times," pimps, wohors have a brat for welfare america. that was also a defeat for hate last night. >> it was a defeat with hate. listen to the coalition this president has assembled through this election process. have you 93% of the african-american vote. 71% of the latino vote. 70% of the asian-american vote. a majority of young, single women. i mean, it is an extraordinary coalition. look at the movement we made along the lines of progressive politics. you know, we have movement with the legalization of marijuana in a couple of states. that's less about people getting

high and more about us addressing the injustices in our criminal justice system with arrest too many substance abusers. look how many women are in the senate. look at the way marriage equality is put on ballots and vote the through. the question really is, can we continue to be behind this, can we continue to push this president and work with him in order to have the kind of government that's effective? forget liberal versus conservative, just any government. >> john boehner, leader of the republican party, he spoke moments ago about the fiscal cliff. take a listen to him. >> shoring up entitlements, closing special interest loopholes and moving to a fairer, simpler system will bring jobs home and result in a stronger, healthier economy. >> i'm sorry, john, close loopholes, reform the tax code. that was mitt romney's plan and he lost. is this man deaf?

>> you know, martin, i'm going to take issue with you on the day after the election. i think what he just said in that particular clip, president obama, speaking for myself, i would have no problems with tax reform, simplifying people's taxes, closing loopholes, moving toward long-term deficit reduction. it was some of what he didn't say -- >> john, no revenues, no mention of revenues. >> well, okay. that's what i was about to say. some of the other things he didn't mention, and in previous days has said, that he cannot accept any tax increases on people making over $1 million a year. well, he will have to accept them because the president has the w.h.i.hip hand on this. what the president will do is let the 2001 tax cuts expire on january 1st, at which point taxes on the wealthy will go back to their clinton-era

levels, as the president promised during the campaign. taxes on everybody else will rise as well. and one assumes that within the first couple of weeks of the new year, the taxes on the middle class are reduced and can be sold as a tax cut. while taxes on the wealthy remain at clinton-era levels. john boehner won't get his way. they lost the election. the election was partly over this issue of raising taxes on wealthy and having a more balanced approach. the president wasn't at all vague or secretive about this. he has a clear mandate about that. my only other point is there are other things like sensible tax reform, closing loopholes, where there really is common ground and they should be able to come to some agreement. >> let us hope so. you don't agree with that, ari? >> you don't think there's any common ground? >> go ahead. >> i think it's pretty clear if

you look at every key plank of the agenda republicans either obstructed, denied votes entirely, or opposed it when there were votes. i think that's across the board the problem with the message we got yesterday from the republican leaders is, we're now looking at the apex of time for graciousness and cooperation, right? there's no time in american history when it's more expected -- >> absolutely. >> -- than the night of the re-election of the president of the united states -- >> what did you get from john boehner? >> 300-plus electoral votes -- >> mcconnell was worse. >> i agree, he was worse. neither took the chance to even broadly, generally, sound a note of cooperation. so, here's the thing. here's where we're going. we're going to go into now a president with an overwhelming mandate, a re-elected mandate, a real coalition. we're now going to have to have the argument, without all of the lies about bipartisanship. it's not about bipartisanship. it's about solutions. if the republicans want to come

in against this re-elected president -- i mean, the other thing -- know what jonathan means, he mentioned the president letting the tax cuts expire. no, no. the congress handles that. the congress has the taxing power of the constitution. if the republican house wants to raise taxes on everyone as opening salvo, i say let them. let's go forward. we know the stakes. >> let me play for you rush limbaugh because we couldn't have an opening segment in our broadcast without them. he appears to be losing his mind over accusations the gop is too old and too white. take a listen to the great rush. >> clarence thomas, herman cain, none of it counts. don't tell me the republican party doesn't have outreach. we did. but what are we supposed to do now? are we supposed to -- in order to get the hispanic or latino vote, does that mean open the borders and embrace the illegals? is that what -- i want you to think about this. if we're not getting the female vote, do we become pro choice?

do we start passing out birth control pills? is that what we have to do? >> professor peterson, open the borders and everyone receive contraception. what do you believe? >> the discourse of hate is dying out. there's a lot of problems with what he's talking about but i'll take issue with a couple perform herman cain clarence thomas and folk like that represent those th that tokenism. we want equitable representation. maybe rush limbaugh doesn't understand that up. don't have to be passing out birth control to understand women have the right to choose what they're going to do with their bodies. can you still be pro life, just don't impose your religious ideology on everyone else in the country. there has to be middle ground. rush limbaugh will never get there but that brand of hateful discourse is diminishing in its

popularity. there's a way in which the coalition which was put together to re-elect this president is a sort of embodiment in the ways we can move forward in this country. it's not about bipartisanship or left/right, it's about being effective and progressive. we have a lot of signals in terms of last night that we're moving in the right direction. >> gentlemen, we don't have any more time. thank you all so much. next, why some people still just don't get it. stay with us. >> with this vote the american people have also made clear that there's no mandate for raising tax rates. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do.

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i'll set up the video conference to iron out the details. this cdw cloud collaboration powered by cisco is pretty amazing. we interact with our offices, anywhere, anytime. charles, you're one of the greatest losers of all time. thank you.

some so-called pundits are saying the president's supporters shouldn't overindulge in celebrating today, but if they must you should do so with underagreement. mitt romney took the mother of all beatings. this wasn't a points decision. he was knocked out cold. joining me in new york is anna marie cox, a columnist for "the guardian," jonathan capehart and an msnbc contributor, writer for "the washington post." >> hello. >> if i can start with you, which was worse for mitt romney, his inept performance as a candidate or that republicans have yet to discover black people, hispanics, women, anyone under the age of 30? which is worse? >> well, i think they're both worse. it's worse for mitt romney because, you know, he just couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to do with his

campaign. we talked many, many times on your show about where are his ideas, where are his plans, where are his tax returns? and he got shellacked at the polls. now the sadness and despair and trauma moves to the party as a whole, because as you've said, the republican party has to deal with the fact that it is now confronted by a nation that doesn't look like its party. the country is younger, it's blacker and browner. and it doesn't look like the republican party. if the republican party want to go -- wants to, you know, remain a regional party, then it can just keep doing what it's doing. if it wants to be a governing national party, it must figure out who it is and how it's going to relate to people of color. otherwise it's going to die. >> right. anna marie, you wrote today that republicans can no longer rely

on home phobfo homophobia to sw election. >> they can't rely on people people turning out to deny rights. if you look at 2004, 11 states passed anti-marriage amendments. i'm not going to call them anti-gay marriage amendments, because that's what they are. the karl roves of the world counted on those voters to elect bush. they did. this year we had three states in the nation in history to legalize gay marriage, to expand marriage equality by popular vote. this is no longer a case of incremental gains in courts. this is a case of the american people deciding, you know what, marriage is for everyone. >> it's a civil right and everyone should have it. jonathan, republicans as you know threw every dirty trick at the president and lost. voter suppression failed. super pac money failed. labeling the president as some non-american who disdains judeo

christian values and hands out three telephones, failed. every cynical trick failed. is that the lesson they have had to learn? >> one can only hope. this is what the republicans were hoping. they were hoping that folks would believe their tales about the president, but as we saw in poll after poll after poll, the president's job approval rating was low, his handling of the economy was low, but when asked do you actually like this person personally, the president's approval numbers were through the roof. >> and do you trust this president? do you trust him? >> yes, yes, that was the other thing. so, you take all of that and the american people know barack obama. they know what he stood for, where he wanted to take the country. the other problem for the republicans is they didn't come back with an alternative vision w an alternative plan. so, you know, what happened last night was bound to happen. >> well, to jonathan's point, do

republicans understand what has happened? let's listen to the great charles krout hammer. >> i think the real story here is obama won but he has no mandate. he won by going very small, very negative. and we are left as a country exactly where we started but a little worse off. i think that the future of the party is quite bright. >> i need to apologize to any young viewers who may have been frightened by that face. i believe the future of the gop is quite bright. what is he talking about? >> i don't know. that he is -- >> quite brat they don't -- >> quite bright if he's talking about the color of the skin of the republican party. you know, it does reflect more light than people who are slightly darker color. >> right. >> there's that. i wanted to add to your statement that the republican party is whiter than the rest of the nation. it also has -- it's more male. i mean, it's more male, less tolerant. i have to say that charles

krauthammer is a practicing psychiatrist. he also volunteered to write prescriptions for anyone that may need them. and i would say that maybe they need not antianxiety drugs but perhaps mood stabilizing. they're looking at this in a crazy way. their reality is falling apart but the question, was that ever reality? those so-called skewed polls they were trying to interpret through their lens turned out to be right. that's what you heard on fox news all night. like this confusion. >> yes, yes. >> and they also said the bureau of labor of statistics was just wrong. they challenged every reality, didn't they? >> they did. >> they kind of held on to the delusion. jonathan, i read your column, and i know you were heart broken to hear alan west will not be returning to congress. >> no. >> is there anything you would like to say to console mr. west in his moment of grief? >> bye.

>> that is plenty. thank you both. next, the president is returning to the white house with a strong wind at his back. what will it mean for america in the next four years? stay with us. as a psychiatrist, i will offer to write prescriptions for anybody who needs them right now. just write necessity at fox news. i'll take care of them. >> as a lawyer, i counsel you not to do that. the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone...but her likes 50% more cash. but i'm upping my game. do you want a candy cane? yes! do you want the puppy? yes! do you want a tricycle? yes! do you want 50 percent more cash? no! ♪ festive. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash.

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[ sighs ] thanks! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook. now for the five stages of grief, from denial and anger to bargaining and depression, here are today's top lines somebody forgot about acceptance. >> the task of perfecting our union moves forward. >> nbc news has projected that president obama has won the state of ohio. >> everything i'm looking at is showing a tremendous romney victory. >> it is a done deal. president barack obama wins a second term as 44th president of the united states. >> we can now definitively say president barack obama will be re-elected. >> we're going to win by a landslide. >> i want to thank every american who participated in

this election. >> not so fast. >> well, i'm disappointed. >> the romney campaign is not conceding ohio. >> still, cross my fingers, waiting to hear about ohio. >> candy, candy, candy, candy, come on now. >> do you believe ohio has been settled? >> no, i don't. look, if we are calling this on the basis of 74% of the vote being in and when 77% is in, secretary of state, i got director of ohio campaign on romney on the other end of the line refreshing the page every few seconds. >> help me! help me! oh, my world! >> it's not a traditional america anymore. >> how do i stop obama in 2016? >> all i'm saying is, we've had one instance where something was prematurely called. >> for the united states of america, the best is yet to come. >> try to get to the bottom of this. >> he's crunching numbers. he's writing furiously. >> do you stand by your call in ohio? >> we're quite comfortable with the call in ohio. >> no word on mitt romney making any kind of a concession speech. >> i so wish i had been able to

fulfill your hopes to lead the country. >> it's a perplexing time for many of us right now. >> the nation chose another leader. >> the white establishment is now the minority. >> lets go right to our panel now. msnbc contributor goldie taylor and msnbc contributor joy reed is manager of the grio.com. forgive me for personalizing it. you appear to be the embodiment of modern america but it's something mitt romney, republicans, fox news don't seem capable of grasping. >> i remember as far back as maybe 1996 when newt gingrich was pulling people together like j.c. watts and wanting to expand the big tent that was supposed to be the gop. ironically enough or unfortunately in the time since,

that tent has only gotten smaller. they're playing to a more and more extreme base that is getting, you know, aggressively older and whiter all of the time. meanwhile the rest of the country is getting younger, more brown. women are growing in economic power and political heft, as we saw last evening with the election of so many new female senators across this country. and so the country is literally growing against the gop base. it's unfortunate that even today many, many years after 1996 that this gop still has not recognized that it is not about whether or not they're reaching out but whether or not they're listening to those constituencies they want to represent. do you agree? >> i think what we're seeing is the aftermath of the culture wars. i've had a theory the culture wars ended a long time ago and both sides understand who won and it was this new america, this more diverse, more tolerant america. and i think the most charitable

way to look at it, there are most people, older, in the south, that look at this country and don't recognize it. they feel it's been stolen away by immigrants, african-americans, people they don't see as prototypical american as they are. >> he said repeatedly i wanted to take back america. he wants to take it back to 1953 as opposed to 2012. >> where they felt comfortable. just by being in their own skin they had power. now i think a lot of people feel disempowered and seeing barack obama re-elected as president, you know, confirms their worst fears, maybe this wasn't a fluke. it may be this other america really is dominant. >> on fox news last night, as we know, it was something of a dark night of the soul. i'd like you to take a listen to the performance of karl rove. just bear in mind, this man's super pac spent over $300 million attacking the president. here is he. >> even if they have made it on the basis of select precincts,

i'd be very cautious about intruding in this process. >> well, folks -- >> thanks. >> -- so maybe not so fast. >> thanks a lot. >> thank you. >> great to have you guys here. >> that's awkward. >> that's awkward. >> goldie, did you get the impression he was trying to bring back the ghost of 2000 there? >> it is ironic that this is the very same karl rove that did want a network to reverse a call in florida in a prior election. you know, and then -- you know, i have -- i have to tell you, i could not for the life of me fathom someone with that money, after a landslide like this. joy and i talked about this, i did another show some weeks ago and said the president would get 30 0-plus electoral votes, as many as 330.

everyone on that panel laughed me off as irrelevant and silly. and last night as the returns came in, this race was never close. it was never going to be the model that karl rove thought it was. certainly never was going to be on the model that dick morris thought it was. here is the clencher. they modeled this on 78% white turnout. >> yes. >> it was 72%. so white america is shrinking. they haven't come, you know, really to grips with that. >> joy, there are so many flaccid bags of toxic waste on the republican side at the moment. we have donald trump and, of course, the revolting john s ii sununu and the man who spit when he talks, dick morris and he said, i'm quoting, i predicted a romney landslide and instead we ended up with an obama squeaker.

that's an obama squeaker. he's at 303, he could be at 330 with florida. it's a squeaker? >> because there is this age of unreality. because conservatives -- >> even after the election's been counted, unreality continues. >> didn't happen. >> doesn't happen. >> and it will never happen. >> the president's not been re-elected. >> i watched a little bit of a certain network today because i wanted to experience it for myself. if you live in that universe they've hermetically sealed themselves inside, barack obama can only be elected through fraud, there are no actual supporters of his, everyone's hypnotized -- >> i so appreciate you explaining this to me. >> they've developed this alternate reality because it feels good. and, unfortunately, they haven't -- there's no adult in that party who can say to the voters on the republican side, you lost this election and here's why. you're too extreme and let me explain to you why that invitens people. there isn't anyone. even mitt romney doesn't have the stature to do it. >> we are watching the first

family arriving at the airport in chicago, about to board air force one. we were speaking -- you were saying there aren't many people who are grown-ups in the republican party, but there is bill o'reilly. let's listen to what he has to say. >> the white establishment is now the minority. you're going to see a tremendous hispanic vote for president obama. overwhelming black vote for president obama. and women will probably break president obama's way. people feel that they are entitled to things. and which candidate between the two is going to give them things? >> does that remind you of the president being described as someone who gives free stuff? remember that fund-raiser -- >> i remember when mitt romney came from the naacp saying, they want free stuff. >> they are victims -- >> that's the meaning of socialism, they want to take my

hard-earned dollars and give them to those people for their stuff. that's really what this -- it's -- >> but if you treat the electorate with absolute contempt, and then they don't elect you, why do you go on television when the result has come in and continue to treat the electorate with contempt? >> this is a party that's built its base on workers who have willingly become nonunions, hate unions. these are states particularly in the south that are basket cases, wards of the federal government. they take in more federal tax dollars than they give, than they could ever give. the blue states subsidizing their lifestyles. they are on the same dole they say is evil and socialist. they're in a disconnect with reality, fed purposelily people at bill morris, people at that network and then they turn

around and make money off them because they sell viagra on air. >> they do. we're watching the first family. they're expected to descend from the helicopter -- i believe, is that the president? it is. as the president and his two daughters descending the stairs and the first lady as well. they'll be approaching air force one and making the trip back to washington very soon, indeed. they're smiling at us. already, gold y some on the right have attempted to d de-legitimize the results. >> donald trump is trolling twitter. mitch mcconnell said this is not a mandate, that this broad-based supported, like this coalition, unlike any coalition we've seen in american politics, doesn't say something to this country about itself and about the direction that we are choosing to take the vision we bought

into. if that isn't a mandate, i don't know what is. >> well, i mean, it's interesting because i also heard the other mean going around is that the president should show humility. he needs to comport himself in a way he doesn't come across as a victor. he almost needs to come hat in hand to the right and ask them what they need. >> that he's responsible for bipartisanship. i've said, that's privilege inaction when you're asking this particular president that he should be the one hat in hand, he's the one walking home -- >> and he did win. >> after all. >> goldie taylor and joy reid, thank you so much. maybe mitt should have stuck with ann. stay with us. >> besides my wife ann, paul is the best choice i've ever made. and i trust his intellect and hard work and commitment to principle will continue to contribute to the good of our nation. [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix.

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oral-b power brushes. go to oralb.com for the latest offers. we are not going to duck these tough issues. we will not duck the tough issues. we will lead. we are not going to duck these tough issues. >> we've had a lot of fun over the past few months with a certain right wing golden boy. for those who may be worried this fun is coming to an end, take heart, we still have paul ryan to kick around. that's right. the republican party's leading intellectual announced today he's returning to his seat in the united states house of representatives, where he serves as chairman of the budget committee. so, mr. ryan's battle may be lost but his war against medicare and social security carries on. let's bring in dana milbank, columnist for "the washington post." dana, has this election damaged the paul ryan brand or is he still the golden boy? >> well, he's still the golden

boy among the house republican conservatives who basically dominate this caucus. there's going to be an interesting dynamic here. you had john boehner come out today and actually float the idea of, heaven forbid, an increase in tax revenues. that's a direct repudiation of what paul ryan has stood for. because he tied himself to closely to paul ryan's economic plan, it basically became a repudiation of that plan as well. >> now, paul ryan is often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for 2016. but don't republicans have to have a serious think about that? i mean, given last night's results, is paul ryan part of the solution for them or part of the problem? >> on the positive side he probably comes out better out of this election than sarah palin did.

>> that's an exponential difference. >> yes, we can give him faint praise here. he's staep established himself as a serious intellectual. now, the policies he's espousing for the moment have been knocked down by the electorate. obviously, four years from now, things could be very different. but he's certainly going to be a power player on the hill here. you'll see a lot of tension between him and the establishment that's trying to reign he's people in and say, look, have you to respect the will of the electorate. >> the truth is, here's the question, dana, does this man continue to commit himself to his promise and pledge to grover norquist or does he face reality after the shellacking that his ticket has just been given by the president? >> here's the thing. i sat down at a breakfast with him a couple years ago and he said why he didn't want to go with the simpson/bowles plan. he said, i want to take this to the voter and let them decide. congressman, they decided. now what?

is he going to say, voter decided, now i retreat? there's nothing that suggests he would do that which is why it looks like there could be a lot of blood shed on that side of the capitol. >> you should know he suffers with selective amnesia as you know in records of marathons and so forth so he probably forgot what he said to you at breakfast. thank you so much. next, divided. really? is america as far apart as some punters might think? stay with us.

the president and the first family are now on the runway and about to take off en route back from chicago to the white house. nbc's mike is at the white house awaiting their return and historian michael beshlaf joins

us from chicago. i imagine the white house is preparing for the triumphant return of the president and his family. >> reporter: staffers heard out here on pennsylvania avenue, on lafayette park, they are building the inaugural stands. they started doing that last week, actually. i came by last night. thousands of people, rushing in from george washington university and other universities, really from all directions around northwest washington, gathering in lafayette park. it was quite a scene. that's when the celebration started here in washington. those staffers working in the west wing could hear them. we're doing something today that we're ordinarily not allowed to do. we're going to see the president arrive live on the south lawn. he is, of course, with the first lady and their two daughters. we're told there are going to be a lot of staffers out there to greet them as they come back here. a triumphant return. they're going to be living in this building, apparently, for another four years. >> and you'll be covering them.

michael, take it in the context of history and demographic dominance enjoyed by the president last night. is the country really divided or is that wishful thinking on the part of those who lost last night? >> well, i think it's divided but perhaps not evenly divided. that should allow barack obama to say, i sure did get a mandate and congress should be aware of that. if there was a republican leader today who said he didn't have a mandate, that's so against american tradition. you know, one thing, martin, as long as we're talking about history, it was so much easier for a president to get along with congress and get congress to sometimes make sacrifices during world war ii and the cold war. the second that was over, bill clinton was the first to suffer from this. member of congress are much less likely to do what they did, especially during the cold war. >> the celebrations are likely to be short-lived because there's plenty of issues for this president to address, which, of course, there's the

fiscal cliff. i mean, do you -- i mean, what do you, mike, expect him to begin tackling in his second term? what do you think the list of priorities will be? >> so much for a honeymoon. one thing is clear, that's that we'll see something on i grand scale in terms of a grand bargain along the lines of simpson/bowles. that might not be big enough for some people. they were talking about some $4 trillion in deficit reduction. i think that's what's on the table. when you hear what the president said in the weeks leading up to it and immediately after, he already called the congressional leader. you heard the nuanced statement from speaker boehner putting things on the table in a very conciliatory message. he wasn't for raising taxes but tax revenues. he cited reagan and tip o'neill economics back in the '80s, maybe the speaker needed to be reminded, taxes were raised. >> how would you characterize

this president's second presidential victory? >> i think it was decisive. he had almost the exact same margin that john kennedy did in electoral votes over nixon in the '60s. you know, mike was mentioning the word honeymoon. it worries me, breaks my heart to think the word is antique. it was a newly elected president would get 90, 100 days in which president and the congress would try to get along. on election night '92, bill clinton won, bob dole went on tv and said, i'm representing 57% of americans who did not vote for bill clinton. you know, that's the kind of tradition it would be nice to avoid. >> it would be, indeed. thank you both. ♪

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it's time to clear the air. what did we learn from the president's re-election last night? well, there are two things that i learned. first, the america that mitt romney wanted to lead is not the america that actually exists. it was apparent throughout the campaign that republicans were not dealing in the reality of demography. their candidate's sole response to the issue of immigration is that people should be forced to self-deport. it made no sense then. it makes no sense now. when republicans talked about rape in the most insensitive and uncivilized manner, they betrayed an attitude that was better suited to the 19th century. it was disgusting. it was insulting toward women but they carried on. when individuals as repulses ive as rush limbaugh called a young student a slut and a whore, mr. romney couldn't find it in himself to condemn the poison

that flowed from limbaugh's lips, so he continued. the problem for mr. romney, the longer the campaign went on, the more people began to wonder what kind of a country he wanted to lead, because it wasn't the kind of country that most of us want to live in. but if that was the first lesson of last night, the second was no less significant. and put simply, it was this -- for once hate lost. hate was given a beating. the hate directed towards the president by odeus individuals like donald trump and john sununu. the hate directed to the people in the astonishing fund-raiser when mitt romney despised 47% of the population. last night hate was the loser. that's why today really is a better day for the real america and all her people. thank you so much for watching today.